I'm not sure how barbecue rubs containing coffee got started; they seem to be used on beef more often than not. Meathead Goldwyn gives one for "Cowboy Java Rub" that has equal parts coffee and brown sugar with black pepper and a pinch of cinnamon. The one I used is typical, I'm not even sure where I found it. Tasting the rub, the coffee is in the background and the smoked paprika and New Mexico chili are front and center. The rub overall has a well balanced taste. I used it with a 50/50 mix of pork shoulder and beef chuck roast. To make a snack stick out of it, I increased the salt level, added cure #1, and gave it a starter culture with dextrose.

Taste result - so so. Good in a fermented salty meat way, but the bold tastes in the rub have gone into the background. Coffee taste has vanished. My co-worker said I have graded these harshly when compared to what is commonly sold. I'll have to revisit these at a later date. Again I'm glad to have been working with small amounts and a short time.

I've never used coffee in sausage, but have baked with it and have found that using instant versus grounds will give you a better punch in flavor. I also punch the spice quantities up quite a bit when dealing with chili, I use a very very hot dried Thai chili powder and Ancho for that deep mild chili flavor. I cook a paste of ancho/hot thai and use it a lot as the quantities of the dry ancho in a formulation can give it a mild saw dust type texture in the background. I've found that the Thai's use pastes a lot instead of dry blends and took off in that direction after being here a few years, they seem to blend in a lot better in the final dish your cooking.

I always soak or steep my spices/pastes in just enough water or other liquids the formulation calls for to hydrate.

Was brought up doing that, as it allow for a more even mix and seems to help absorption....but who knows.Just my 2 cents.

Using both chipotle and red pepper flakes breaks up the heat, initial heat and smoke from the chipotle then heat after chewing from the red pepper flakes. These could be made much hotter but I like them about here.

This is one of my best ones yet. The cheese goes perfectly with the cured meat. The Worchestershire sauce is present but doesn't overwhelm the overall taste (something I was concerned about). It adds a faint sweetness to balance the other flavors. Sliced thin on the bias, this makes a delightful snack. This is a great one to start off with as a small test batch.

Wow Paul, you got some interesting stick recipes. Great work, they all look and sound delicious.On a side note, I visit nearly every day, but I haven't seen any new post to this thread in over a year. and my opening screen is "View New Posts". How could this be?

Just wondering (I for one, am glad it came back on top of the posts)....You can do this with all recipes as long as you use sheep casing, bactoferm and cure #1?

Can all types if bactoferm be used?

I finally found batteries for my pH meter (a simple gardening pH meter). Can I just stick it into one of the sausages (the same one each time) to measure, or should I take some meat, mix with water and then measure? Or not to measure at all and go by weight loss?I do have some pH paper as well.I also have a meter that measures soil humidity. Might be interesting to see if that measures humidity in sausages?

I also got a package for making cacciatore (from this website). Could I use that the same way, even though it contains cure #2. I am a bit scared to use it as described as I cannot control the temperatures/humidity very well and it would be my first time making dried sausahes (except for Kabanosy).

Sorry for the amount of questions. Fresh sausage and smoked sausage is not really a problem but this I have never done